Game Reviews

Corporate Salmon review - A cheekily absorbing casual climber

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iOS
| Corporate Salmon
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Corporate Salmon review - A cheekily absorbing casual climber
|
iOS
| Corporate Salmon

I see what they did there. The corporate climber cast as a smartly dressed salmon, leaping up an escalator in bid to get to a smarter office and a bigger pay packet.

As a metaphor, Corporate Salmon is a little on the nose. As a game with a cheeky twist of social satire, it's surprisingly accomplished.

Slippery slope

Corporate Salmon is an endless climber that goes out of its way to not be another boring endless climber.

It starts with the movement system, your salmon springing off of the nearest surface with every tap of the screen. At first it's fiddly and unpredictable, but it soon becomes slightly less fiddly and slightly more predictable.

If you catch the edge of successive escalator steps just right, you'll be able to build up a thrillingly precarious head of steam.

Another plus point: there are frequent, attainable goals to reach, namely the next level of the corporate tower. All this really seems to do is change the colour scheme, but it means that you don't feel like you're on a treadmill.

In the green

Then of course there's that bluntly effective setting. It makes sense that there are coins rattling down the steps above you, many of which will slip through your fingers. If you had fingers, that is.

It also makes sense that there are other flapping wage slaves on the escalator with you, and that their own desperate lunges can take you both down.

Tapping jump just as you pass the occasional profit line, meanwhile, will propel you forward several steps at a time and shoot a big wodge of cash into your pockets to help you towards the next level. Tapping the loss line will also propel you up the corporate escalator, but you'll lose money.

It's a price you often need to pay when the auto-scrolling screen catches up to you, and it's a neat mechanic.

Fresh fish

Corporate Salmon is a joyfully silly, deliberately awkward endless climber that manages to supply enough fresh elements to keep you coming back.

Its core movement system, in particular, can be really intoxicating, offering just the right blend of skill and luck.

In terms of lasting impact this particular fish is still swimming in the shallows, but it's got its beady eye trained on greater things.

Corporate Salmon review - A cheekily absorbing casual climber

A smart, punchy endless climber with a well judged movement system
Score
Jon Mundy
Jon Mundy
Jon is a consummate expert in adventure, action, and sports games. Which is just as well, as in real life he's timid, lazy, and unfit. It's amazing how these things even themselves out.